Implantable medical devices are capable of providing a wide range of benefits to a patient. Traditionally, there has been interest in delivering bioactive substances or chemicals (generally and collectively referred to herein as “drugs”) in conjunction with such medical devices for a variety of purposes. For example, in one conventional approach the implantable medical device is coated with a bioactive substance. In other conventional approaches various techniques for delivering drugs in liquid form to a target location in a patient from an external or implanted reservoir.
In many conventional approaches, a bioactive substance is integrated into the polymeric coating of the implantable medical device or accompanying component. These and other conventional approaches typically require the incorporation of the drug into the implantable medical device during the manufacturing process of the device. This requirement introduces a number of difficult problems and challenges for the manufacturing and sterilization processes. On the other hand, the use of reservoirs provides significant limitations to many aspects of the administration of the drug therapy.